Twinkl

[Idefinatelyhavefriends]

Long time lurker here. Anyone else use Twinkl for home education? Well, if not it's an online collection of resources used by most schools in the UK and also has free resources or anyone can get a subscription. I love it actually. Just had a looked their LGBT history resources and they are riddled with gender ideology. Plenty of "assigned at birth" inaccuracies and such. Not sure what the point of this post is. I'm angry about it.

It’s disappointing when a useful-looking free resource turns out to include something irrational that casts doubt on everything else it’s told you.

Isn't it somewhere anyone can upload to? I would be surprised if tgere wasn't a whole load of inaccurate rubbish stuff on there to be honest. I have seen twinkle stuff come home from school with errors in it: fairly basic misunderstandings of science if I remember correctly.

Its worth contacting them, a friend works for them and they do very quickly edit things if needed. They have a whole team whose job it is to correct things like this drop them an email.

I've informed them of mistakes in their resources, and they've responded and corrected within days.

This is a very emotive issue, though, and there's no knowing how captured they are. They also provide resources for countries like Australia, where I think the law around trans issues is different to UK law - more captured.

First lockdown school sent a lot of twinkl sheets..mostly shit IMHO. thankfully school have now upped their game!

It's interesting that posters here say they correct things. I've had contact with them also and got the impression that the team we fully woke and they thought their stuff was in line with the govt statutory guidance (and teachers could use what they wanted, not so easy for home schooling).

"We do not provide direct teaching to children so the precise manner in which this material is delivered is at the discretion and interpretation of each individual customer or organisation. As we have said previously all of our resources are age-appropriate and in line with the National Curriculm’s statutory and non-statutory guidance for Relationships and Sex Education including its more recent revisions around challenging gender stereotypes. The RSE guidance also states that a school is able to judge what content is suitable for their community."

I have since stopped using their resources as I will not support anyone who does support gender ideology, even if it's just print outs for colouring in!

They are probably trying to walk a line but it's still gaslighting children and so they are part of the problem.

Also this was part of the reply:

"The Twinkl Resource Creation team have been in touch. They believe that everyone should be able to choose how they identify and that the decision of an individual about how they identify should be accepted and respected."

So fully woke employees who design and create the materials. And yes the LGBT materials seem innocent at first but the 'assigned at birth' stuff is BS.

I hate bloody twinkl. My DS's school keeps sending home twinkl sheets for every activity. He's already doing the highest level they are sending. He told them last week that he's finding the work too easy (takes him 5 mins) and he'd rather do the CGP guides he has at home my parents bought him the entire year's worth of books but his teachers told him he needs to "follow the curriculum". How is his actual year in CGP guides NOT following the curriculum?! I'm sick of bloody nursery rhymes and fairy stories.

I used Twinkl in the first lockdown with my then year 2 and nursery aged kids. For them, it was great and I still use the odd worksheet for my now reception aged kid of he finishes his work quickly.

I'm not sure what you mean by LGBQT+ comment though but to be honest I've not been looking at those resources.

Many of their resources are editable once you've downloaded them...

I use Twinkl for Home Edding my children. Unfortunately the secular Home Ed community tends to be very woke so finding a company that hasn't signed up to this nonsense is very difficult. I just pick and choose what I use. I also think it's only useful for the earlier years of education.

"The Twinkl Resource Creation team have been in touch. They believe that everyone should be able to choose how they identify and that the decision of an individual about how they identify should be accepted and respected."

This is such a meaningless statement. I respect and accept the fact that (for example) a trans woman I know identifies a woman. So I can agree with twinkl. The issue isn't with that (tho of course you can get into what does 'identify as' mean). The issue is what does that fact then require of us, and wider society, especially in terms of policy and law.

I read the 'motte & bailey' article that kathleen stock posted, and this is one. Most people would be happy with the motte of this. But it's the Bailey that is playing out in policies up and down the land.

I can’t stand Twinkl.

Just wanted to get that off my chest. 🤣

Unfortunately most of the country's newer teachers, who've been teaching for up to about 8years, may heavily rely on twinkl.

I'm hoping that teacher trainer centres are disallowing over reliance on it as nothing beats your own resources and you need to know how to do them, but it's definitely a favourite among nqts.

There are big twinkl Facebook groups too.

Twinkl is a valuable, accessible resource for phonics, number bonds and differentiated comprehension exercises. You'd have to go looking hard for anything remotely controversial.

I think you're thinking of Sparklebox, picklemewalnuts

I didn't apply for a job in a school once because EVERY single thing on the walls, on the displays, was Twinkl. I was quite shocked by it. Never seen anything like it before or since.

I'll ask to be deleted! Sorry for the confusion!

I find twinkle is very rarely age appropriate and often is very death by PowerPoint. I do get why people use it from a time point of view but prefer to make my own resources. However, I am no longer in mainstream teaching so it's easier for me to do so.
@sanityisamyth I'd do both if DC is up for it. Nothing wrong with doing extra if they enjoy it. To be honest teachers have no way of enforcing a fair experience of work at the moment so it's all going to be off curriculum race to equalise when we return. I'm hoping sats will die a death by that point.

@TheBuffster we seem to be doing enough to keep the teachers happy and then he does lots in his CGP guides. We try to pick the topics that they were given to do anyway, but he prefers the CGP format. I don't see what harm it does really, but the school won't mark his CGP work. Luckily I'm a teacher so I can mark his work anyway!

I find the same theBuff. I could see the value for filler sheets etc if I was mainstream. But I cannot follow the bloody powerpoints!

myfriend the issue is and has been around the terminology used in resources relating to trans stuff; indicating that "gender" expression = sex, "wrong body" etc.

I haven't seen the Twinkl resources, but presumably they must comply with DoE guidelines to be used?
If you find any information not in keeping with the DoE guidelines I would have thought Twinkl would be willing to change that..